


HoneyBee

by aguwustdick (sugandrew), beary_scary



Series: A Simple Spoonful [7]
Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Angst, Coffee, Five needs a hug, Fluff, Humor, OC needs a hug, Sibling Bonding, Talk of bad parenting, Tattoos, Wow, its bonding time, sorry no Allison I just couldn't find a way to squeeze her in
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-04
Updated: 2019-04-04
Packaged: 2020-01-04 14:48:26
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,629
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18345845
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sugandrew/pseuds/aguwustdick, https://archiveofourown.org/users/beary_scary/pseuds/beary_scary
Summary: Five asks Honey about her tattoo. This spurs a bonding moment full of tears, laughs, and regrets.





	HoneyBee

**Author's Note:**

> Warning: Honey's parents aren't the nicest. They kicked her out when she turned 18 for reasons that will be revealed later on. So just a warning :)

It was one of those slow nights where the last customer seemed to have fallen asleep to the lullaby of A Simple Spoonful’s smooth jazz playlist. Five and Honey were sitting in comfortable silence as the older man who frequented the coffee shop packed up his notebook, threw out his coffee, and walked out the door with a nod of thanks to Honey and the jingle of the bell following in his wake. With the man finally gone, Honey allowed her body to sag in exhaustion as she began the normal lock-up routine.

Five continued to read the newspaper, proving that he is, indeed, an old man in a child’s body as the college student began to untie her work apron. The Hargreeves child looked up from his newspaper, about to ask the younger girl a question, when something caught his eye.

Since when did Honey have a tattoo?

There, on the back of her right arm, was a small, detailed honey bee. Huh. Five continued to stare at the ink on the girl’s arm until she eventually noticed. Honey could feel the man-child staring at her arm and turned her head enough to follow his line of sight to her tattoo.

“Since when do you have a tattoo?” The fifty-eight-year-old has always been proud of his observational skills, so the fact that he had apparently overlooked such a small detail enticed him. The blonde-haired girl doesn’t respond immediately and he’s about to ask again when he notices the look on her face. 

Oh no. He knew that look. That’s the look Honey only got when she was remembering her parents. It was common knowledge to the boy that her parents kicked her out when she was eighteen. He didn’t know the exact reason, but Five wasn’t going to ask.

 

Honey’s entire demeanor has changed since he asked the question, and he was beginning to regret it, when she finally turned her body and faced him, “It’s a bee that I got when I turned nineteen,” her voice was like a whisper compared to her normal voice, “I went with Katie.” Five watched as the twenty-three-year-old approached the barstool next to his and sat down. She leaned against the counter, her physical and mental exhaustion making itself visible to the boy sitting next to her.

“You know, my dad gave me the nickname Honey,” Five waited patiently as the girl told her story, “he knew I got picked on in school because of my real name. So he started calling me ‘Honey’.” She scoffed, “My mom hated it. She always said it was ‘disrespecting my real name’ and ‘not even an actual name’. I think that was one of the reasons I loved it so much. Because it was something made by my dad that angered my mom. I-I loved it so much.” At this point, her eyes were sparkling from unshed tears. Five watched as his friend fought her own emotional war and he began to feel something he hadn’t felt in a long time.

He felt helpless.

There was nothing he could do to help Honey fight the war raging in her head. There was nothing he could do to make her parents take her back. All he could do was be there for her now, and he didn’t even know how to do that properly.

Honey sniffled as the tears began to fall from her eyes, “After they uh, kicked me out, I kind of hated it.” Five looked at her, confused,   
“Wait, you hated being called ‘Honey’?” She nodded, “My dad gave me that name. So whenever I heard it or even thought of it, I couldn’t help but think about him and my mom. It was hard. The entire first year that I knew Katie, I only wanted her to call me Henrietta. I preferred her calling me that rather than Honey, but it still reminded me of all the times I was made fun of for my name.” As she began to speak about Katie, Five could see a smile begin to grow on Honey’s face.

“I guess she knew my dislike of the name because she asked me about it the day before the one year anniversary of me being kicked out. So I told her. I guess a small part of me really wanted to tell someone and at that moment, that small part won. I told Katie everything. About the name. About my parents. About how much I hated who I saw in the mirror,” At this point, the tears that were painting the girl’s face were almost happy tears, “I will never forget what she told me. She looked at me and she said: “Well that won’t do at all!” Honey giggled as she told Five, “She looked me in the eyes and said, ‘That name is yours. Only yours. Don’t let your parents own it. Don’t let anyone else in the world own it but you.’ The next day, she dragged me into a tattoo parlor and told me to get whatever I wanted as long as it helped me ‘claim who I am’.”

“So I got this little guy,” Honey rolled up her sleeve to look back at the mentioned tattoo, “and Katie was right. It helped me to remember that I control who I am. No one else does.”

Five and Honey remained in comfortable silence as they each contemplated the new information. The boy never knew so much thought could go into a tattoo. The only previous references he has had, have been from those he and his siblings were forcibly given. Those and the ones that Klaus had gotten while high out of his mind. Those definitely did not share the same emotional connection that Honey’s had. Yet, he couldn’t get the image of an ash-covered arm with an umbrella tattoo out of his head. Did these tattoos mean something else to his siblings? He had definitely not thought of them as sentimental. The umbrellas seemed to be more like a brand than a symbol now. Sometimes he even forgot he had it. 

He looked at his friend once again. She still had that look on her face and Five wanted nothing more than to wipe it off. Thinking fast, he blurted out the only mildly happy thing he could think of, “Vanya and I used to have a book club. When we were kids.” This seemed to intrigue Honey because she turned to look at him with interest in her still red eyes, “We couldn’t really spend a lot of time together but we knew that we both liked reading so we would read a book each week together. I would read the first four or so chapters, mark the page, put it by her door so she could see it whenever she came back, then she would read those same chapters, and put it by my door so I could read the next couple of chapters and then we start the cycle again. We would do that until the book was finished.” Honey began to smile softly at the thought of a younger Vanya and Five sharing a book without even exchanging words among each other. “Are there any other stories with the other five?” She asked, voice still muddled with emotions.

He nodded, “We used to sneak out to Griddy’s Donuts sometimes and I remember one time Ben dared Klaus to eat ten sprinkled donuts. Which, normally, I don’t doubt that Klaus would have been able to do it, but it was around Easter, so the donuts were disgustingly decorated. Klaus threw up right as we stepped outside.” A small, wistful grin was painted across Five’s face as he remembered the more innocent times of his childhood.

“There was another time where a crazy reporter tried to sneak into our house through a window but was found by Luther and Diego. They don’t get along, but when they work together, they can be really scary. So Diego throws one of his knives near the guy’s face as Luther grabs him by the back of the shirt and carries this full grown man out of the house and kicks him to the curb. Well, throws him to the curb. I remember Diego following them and whispering something into the poor sap’s ear. I never learned what he said, but it made the guy vomit into the storm drain.” Honey couldn’t help but giggle at the thought of small Diego and Luther working together to keep a creep away from their family.

Five watched as Honey began to look more like herself with that natural smile of hers. At that moment, the boy decided that he never wanted to see that sadness on his friend’s face again. 

As the two settled back into a comfortable silence, Honey began to realize how big this was. She told Five about her tattoo and the meaning behind it. Five, in exchange, told her about some of his most precious childhood memories. Ones that he kept close to him for over forty-five years, that kept him sane. 

This was a big step for them. Which was why Honey decided to turn in her seat and hug Five.

She was hugging him. The boy froze as he felt arms circle around him. Honey carefully avoided his shoulders and made sure to keep her grip loose so as to not make him feel trapped. She is aware of his avoidance of touch but clueless as to what may have caused it. The longer she hugged him, the more she realized how relaxed he was becoming. 

He was trusting her.

Unable to form a proper sentence, Honey choked back tears and whispered the only words she could form, “Thank you.”

**Author's Note:**

> This one was a lot wow. I teared up while writing this, not gonna lie. Big thank you to my co-author and everyone who has commented and left kudos! Each comment makes me so emotional but also inspired so thank you!  
> -Scary


End file.
